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TITEL      : HACKING IN HOLLAND
AUTEUR     : ROP GONGGRIJP
DATUM      : 18/10/88
UPLOAD DOOR: ROP GONGGRIJP
UPLOADDATUM: 18/10/88
TREFWOORDEN: HACKING, ENGELS, PHREAK
BEWERKT    : 18/10/88 ROP
IN 'T KORT : Engelse 'leader' voor op buitenlandse BBS'en
FILE       : DUTCH.HCK
LENGTE     : 4.1 kB
TOEGANG    : OPENBAAR
OPMERKINGEN:  
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HACKING IN HOLLAND

    In Holland, hacking started out late. The first real hacks were
done in the early eighties. Among these hacks was the 'RIVM hack',
hacking the computer of the dutch health-inspection (FDA). Because
even patient names were listed here this got a lot of publicity.

    Around 1984/1985 the movement grew rapidly because of the movie
'Wargames' and publications in the "Volkskrant", the country's major
left-wing newspaper. It was around these days two students hacked the
'008 computer', the directory-assistance system, owned by our local
Ma-Bell clone, the PTT. Because hackers had access to a lot of
unlisted phone numbers this was front-page news in all of Europe.

Shortly after this hack, Jan Jacobs published the book 'kraken en
computers' (hacking and computers), about the uprise of the hacker
movement in The Netherlands. Jan Jacobs is also a free-lance reporter
for the 'Volkskrant' which explains their scoops on major hacking
events. In those days, he himself was a hacker.

Things remained relatively quiet, although the CCC kept scaring
everybody with their marvelous hacks all over the world over the
packet-network. X-25 hacking in Holland is relatively new, not because
the net was not there, but because it was still to easy to use the
telephone. Only recently dutch hackers discover that the X-25 net
offers them the opportunity to make low-cost global hacks.

Another group had sprung into life in the early eighties, phreaks.
These phreaks concentrated on mobile phones however, because our ATF1
(car-phone 1) system is as leak as a basket. Using a CBM-64 or other
simple hardware and an FM-tranceiver, every weirdo could make free
calls all over the world. This lasted until there were so many illegal
car-phones that the costs began affecting the total PTT turnover.

The PTT then made it impossible for car-phone users to make
international phone calls automatically and told their international
operators to check for fraud carefully. By that time all the phreaks
were rich from selling their technique 'to friends only', and bored
stiff, because the PTT had taken their toy away. There was a new
system, ATF2 (compatible to the scandinavian NMT system), but this was
to complicated (in those days) to hack (considdering these people were
not computer minds but mainly high-frequency experts).

The phreaks met the hackers and they decided their goels were the
same.

The PTT phreaked out when the world found out that some of the leading
hackers had switched to phreaking. When Personal Computer Magazine
published an article about phreaks making free calls all over the
world through an old exchange in Denmark (which could be reached free
of charge), all hell broke loose. The magazine contained our list of
frequencies for the CCITT-4 system, so suddenly everybody was a
phonephreak. The free lines to Denmark were rerouted, some other gaps
were closed, but no action could be taken against the phone phreaks
(The Key and me among others), because no phone-fraud legislation
exists in Holland. Can you imagine what it's like to live in a country
that has NO phone-fraud laws?

Since then things have cooled down (there are only about 40 real
active hackers in the entire country, so things tend to get quiet
every once in a while), but as soon as anything happens, we'll let you
know.


                                    ROP & The Key


Leave a message for ROP GONGGRIJP at NEABBS, Europe's biggest BBS, and
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